July 2025 book: Lost by Jacqueline Davies:
Tragedy and Loss. Lost is such a fitting title – each person is characterized in some way by that one word, either they have lost a someone, lost their dignity, their purpose, or lost their ability to exercise their free will.
Seventeen-year-old Essie is a Jewish girl living in Manhattan in 1911. She is unable to take care of her six-year-old sister, Zelda, because she has a job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. At the factory, she befriends the new girl, Harriet. She relates to her on a deeper level, because she realizes that Harriet is sad, lonely and lost. We see Essie navigate through her own loss and tragedy as the author alternates between the past and the present, weaving the story together like an intricate web.
Easy read –Young Adults and general readership. Essie is gifted with her sewing and ability to make hats and find piece of velvet, fabric etc to enhance the hat. Young readers would connect with Essie because she had a sewing talent, determination and stamina.
Salient points: Being poor. Each penny was important. Different colored paper for different times. Book took place in 1911. Reference to Pinkerton detective agency. (We have read other books relating to the Pinkerton Agency). Story told with flashbacks – interesting.
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire is brief, although detailed and accurate.
